Der Verbrecher aus verlorener Ehre

Verbrecher aus verlorener Ehre, Der, a story by Schiller, written in 1785 and published in his periodical Die Thalia in 1786, where its title ran Der Verbrecher aus Infamie. The revised title first appeared in Schiller's Kleinere prosaische Schriften (Pt. I, 1792).

Christian Wolf poaches in order to raise money to make presents to a girl in the village in which he keeps an inn. He is detected and fined, detected again and locked up, and on a third conviction receives a severe sentence. An outcast after each release, he takes to the woods, shoots the man who has betrayed him, and becomes the head of a gang of robbers. Utterly disillusioned, he tries in vain to obtain permission to return to normal life. In the end he gives himself up. The story, plainly and economically told, makes it clear that Wolf had good in him and, in more fortunate circumstances, would not have become a criminal; it also stresses the force of moral law. It is based on the story of Friedrich Schwan, who surrendered to the father of Schiller's teacher J. F. Abel, and is described as ‘eine wahre Geschichte’. The impression of authenticity is reinforced by use of the first person for the narration of Wolf's crucial experience.